


The 100th Reason

by OneJumpFromEden



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Age Progression, Demon AU, F/F, Magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 13:53:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14770847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneJumpFromEden/pseuds/OneJumpFromEden
Summary: “Never trust a demon. He has a hundred motives for anything he does ... Ninety-nine of them, at least, are malevolent.”― Neil Gaiman, Preludes & NocturnesThere's a monster under Ava's bed.





	The 100th Reason

She’s just about to drift off to sleep when she hears it the first time.

Scratching. Scraping.

Under the bed.

“Daddy?”

The noise stops suddenly, and she doesn’t hear it again. She stays awake so long that tiredness soon overtakes her, and she wakes in the morning to a room empty of anyone else.

***

She starts asking her parents to check under the bed for monsters every night after they’ve read her a story. Her mom thinks she’s being silly, scoffs, says it’s her overactive imagination, and refuses to check. Her dad humors her, gets down on all fours with a flashlight and everything.

“All clear little soldier, get some rest,” he tells her after he kisses her cheek and turns off her light.

It works for a while, Ava hears nothing.

But one night it happens again, just before she’s asleep once more.

Scratching, scraping.

She knows what to do now though.

Dad told her if she hears it, grab the flashlight, and scare the monster away.

Be brave little soldier.

Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, be-

She hops off the bed, grabs the flashlight and shines it under the bed.

Something hisses, a cat? She can’t bring herself to look. She yelps, drops the torch, and runs to her parents’ room.

***

The next night she’s ready.

Really ready.

She stays awake until she hears the noise again. She doesn’t wait for it to pass. She leaps off the bed to her bedroom light and turns it on. As light floods the room, she grabs the torch and crouches on her hands and knees, peering under her bed.

Her eyes sweep the darkness, seeing nothing-

There.

A bright shining blue.

Eyes in the dark.

“I’m not afraid of you,” she lies, voice trembling, “come out.”

The blue vanishes for a second, the monster blinking.

The scratching noise again, the monster moves. It emerges out the other side of the bed, sitting. Ava moves around to join it, cautiously. The small form is curled up, knees drawn up to its chest, arms hugging it legs. It peers up at Ava through those narrowed blue eyes. Ava crouches down slowly in front of it.

The monster.

It’s not a monster.

It’s a girl.

She looks the same age as Ava, blonde hair, maybe a little taller.

She’s not a monster, but she’s not exactly human..

Her ears are long and pointed, and there’s two small dark stumps on her forehead along her hairline that could be called horns. Her skin is a pale sickly pallor.

“My name is Ava Sharpe, what’s your name?” a meaty toddler fist is thrust in front of the strange girl. She just stares, body rigid and curled on itself, arms hugging her sides.

“I’m not allowed say.”

Ava spots her pointed teeth when she speaks.

“How come?”

“Mom said so.”

“I promise I won’t tell anyone,” Ava takes her hand back, raising her index finger to her lips instead as a show of secrecy.

“Ta-er al-Shafer.”

“Ta-er…”

“Al-Shafer.”

“Ta-er al-Shafer,” she gets it, finally, and the horned girl trembles slightly. Ava thinks she feels a tug in her chest, pulling towards her, but maybe she’s just excited to finally make a friend?

“What do you like?” she continues her interrogation with an enthusiasm only a child can muster.

“We eat bad dreams,” she tells Ava.

“I don’t get bad dreams.”

“Yeah, that’s ‘cause I eat them.”

“Thank you Ta, uh...” she trails off, struggling again to pronounce the unfamiliar name.

“You can call me something else. My sister calls me Sara.”

“Sara,” Ava smiles, “that sounds nice.”

**Author's Note:**

> I haven’t interacted with a toddler in about six years, so I hope their dialogue is believable.  
> I still have a lot more of this story to tell, though I only have a vague idea of the outline. Tags and characters will be updated accordingly. Because I'm not a horrible person, I won't be tagging any relationships that aren't AvaLance, since it's the only one that matters.  
> Let me know what you liked.


End file.
